New Beginnings

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Soodhu Kavvum – A Crazy and Genius Falooda

Imagine you sitting down with a really entertainment seeking kid on her bed and just customarily picking up that sentence from that one book that goes “Once upon a time…”, she just goes buzz and what a lousy storyteller you make. Nalan Kumarasamy understands this better and has played a real good gamble I would say. He just picked up a story which is not new, characters that we have seen here and there, but he just makes it new on every single frame.

Soodhu Kavvum has fun written all over it and it is not just about the brilliantly genius screenplay, but one can actually feel how much the crew enjoyed making the movie. There was this ‘come let’s have fun’ attitude. If you had seen Scott Pilgrim vs the World, you will have a similar experience with Soodhu Kavvum too.

If you remember that Kadhala Kadhala ‘lingam’ art technique that uses a falooda, where kamalahaasan turns a Christ paint into something ‘magical’. The screenplay is something like that falooda art; A simple plot that has craziness sprayed over it.

There are two guys who stay together in Chennai, one a corporate and the other a valet boy. Both of them lose their jobs. OK, how? Let me not give any details, they are crazy for sure. A third guy, who is sent out of his village for a crazy stuff he did and lands in the jobless-bachelor duo’s room. Vijay on the other hand plays Das, who is just a new-in-the-business kidnapper, who has just shifted or probably promoted himself (as he explains) from a smuggler. Now, after a random brawl in a local bar, the four (five according to Das) meet and Das explains to them his life as a smuggler and about his new venture as a kidnapper. In the course of their conversation, the three get to meet the fifth character, who is nothing but Das’ invisible girlfriend. An interesting little add to the screen, this invisible character makes it content-filled.

Beginning with an introduction to kidnapping, Das takes in the three into his team. From the way Das blackmails his victim’s fathers to how he collects the ransom by casually walking into a bank manager’s officer like a pizza boy, director Nalan just plays fun. And you can be part of the fun too. Serious work comes in the form of a request from one Mr. Nambikai Kannan, to kidnap the son of a minister for mere vendetta. Das could keep the ransom from the kidnap. Attracted by the huge money, they break their first rule of kidnapping (“kednapping”) which prohibits them from playing with powerful men, and the four (still five for Das) begin their act.

All of the cast easily blend in with ease. Vijay Sethupathi can never ask for more. Why is this guy chasing directors for their stories, many wondered when gossips claimed so, but this character was definitely worth the chase. Third time again we can see him in a really whacky role and he wins it over with such elegance. He suits the character, the character suits him; he’s sleek. Yog Japee plays another interesting character, that of a psyco policeman, who doesn’t speak. Catch the bad guy, kill him. He does nothing more, nothing less. Japee fits in naturally into that character.

Santosh Narayanan puts the smallest of sounds to good use and adds amazing quality to the screenplay. Both music and background scores are done well. The other departments of camera, art, costumes, preproduction score equally well and go hand-in-hand to give you a complete package of entertainment.

A genre in itself, Soodhu Kavvum is FUN.

Paradesi - A Bala class act

From a director well-known for his characterization comprising of the dark side of a good human being, Paradesi sets out to be a little different towards the end (Even though this is not the first time director Bala had tried to move away from his initial style viz. in Avan Ivan the characters were more comically portrayed at most parts of it).

Even though the story is adapted from a novel, Paradesi begins the Bala style though. An unseen set of village characters that seem to be very fond of their love for humor despite the fact that they all are in extreme poverty, form the drama that sets forth the first half of the film.  Rasa (played by Adharva), an innocent village lad who beats the drum to carry messages and earn a handful of leftover food from anyone who might be willing to  give them away, is at the receiving end of constant complaints from a concerned grandmother. She keeps trying to insult him and push him in all ways to make him develop an ego and earn food through a respectable job. The village’s introduction to us begins with a marriage ceremony and the whole village is rejoicing. A funny old man dies and his own wife wants the news to stay away from popular talk to avoid any disturbance to the marriage and the grand feast to follow. The inference here one has to make is about how despite the fact that the villagers are in despair, they are fun loving people who make use of whatever they have to make merry. Angamma (played by Vedhika) is a naughty village girl whose primary hobby is to make fun of Rasa. Even though she teases him a lot, she only ends up falling in love with his innocence. Rasa is pushed to a level of intolerance during the feast and sets out to seek any job that comes along and gets one too, but, only to get cheated. That’s when he meets a tea estate keeper who is on the search for laborers for his estate. Rasa takes him to his village and the keeper convinces many men including Rasa to join his estate. The desperate men who are misguided by the keeper’s words and attracted by money set forth to the mountains that grew tea.

The next half of the movie is one that of the tortures faced by bonded labors of the British Raj’s tea estates. From severe punishments to anyone who tries to escape to sexual harassments faced by the female laborers at the hands of the White officer in-charge of the estate, the helplessness of the laborers is well-portrayed.

Dhansika plays the role of mother who is trapped in the estate as laborer with her daughter. Her role is one that commands respect, much like that of Sangeetha’s in Pithamagan, a bold young woman facing the world alone. She is the only support Rasa earns. The troubles seem to be never-ending when most of them are made to stay citing penalties from various expenses despite their bond expiring. Their bonds gets extended till they are clearly physically unfit to be profitable. Gripping scenes in the second half melt your heart away.

At a place or two I felt things didn’t work well. One was the unnecessary song involving the savior doctor and his white wife, who are brought by the White men to instill faith in the disease-stricken laborer community (later shown that it is all a false drama played by the Whites). This musical style to portray how faith in god was used to get the laborers back on feet could have been easily avoided. A simple screenplay would have been neat. The other thing that was odd was the quality of English spoken by the White men; even their Tamil seemed better!

The movie ends when Angamma comes to the estate in search for Rasa, with his son (they never married though), and Rasa cries out in vain mentioning how they are trapped in hell forever. This ending is how particularly it is not Bala stuff. Even after Dhansika’s death, Rasa doesn’t soar with anger. He is weak and helpless throughout and not a single sign of rage in seen from him at any point. 

Acting of everyone in the cast is as usual one of benchmark standards, something Bala is known to get out of his cast. Adharava, Vedhika and Dhansika stand out with their expressions and screen command. The dialogues are well written. Dirty jokes fill the conversations throughout the first half. One can feel great quality from the richness in the natural sets, the detail in defining a character’s mannerisms, the effort to get humor of a level that matches the intellect of the characters involved, and what everything  that Bala is always known for. His constant effort to bring elements of uniqueness and strong character definitions to Tamil cinema is an ever continuing one.

Kadal - A Philosophical Ride

Not in many movies, the audience of a Tamil cinema skips the applauses for the protagonist only to rise for the Director and an even louder cheer for the Music Director. Kadal began, for many, outside the theatre. It must be really good; it must be a love story that is mixed with an interesting plot that revolves around characters from a sea-side Tamil Christian community with a strong cast in the form of Arvind Swamy and Arjun, they thought. The muse that was created was also because “coincidently” son of actor Karthik and daughter of actor Radha, who were also cast opposite to each other in their debut “Alaigal Oivathillai”, which was a love story revolving around a sea-side village.

But, Mani Ratnam surprises us with a completely different movie that should probably be accredited with its bold attempt with the characterization, dialogues and screenplay. The natural south Tamil slang that is also delivered in a natural fast phase leaves most city audience biting nearby ears for missing out at them. But, what you get is a rarity. Written by writer Jeyamohan, the dialogues thus give you that normalness of life.

With some wonderful performances from almost every character in the movie, except probably Thulasi, the cast is a standout.  Now, speaking of Thulasi, she needs to work on her expressions; they need to be in a fashion that suit her face more. She perfectly suits in the character, but with the whole screen so beautiful, she should have done better. Most audience felt she didn’t look that great, but I felt it was her novice expression that cost her. Arvind Swamy and Arjun do excellently well without any doubt, and Lakshmi Manju chips in with a small little role that is most important too. Ponvannan brings in his experience to pull out a mature performance too. New-face Gautam is not all that new-face at all with the acting part. He is a natural with acting and did a good job too.

The cinematography is splendid and eye-soothing. The sea is like the background to a drama that runs in front. Scenes from the deep sea in the climax are shot breathtakingly. A 10 on 10  for the cinematographer Rajiv Menon.

What probably is the highlight of the movie is the characterization of the 6 distinct elements I saw-the Good, the Evil, the Human, the Angel, the Coin and the World. The Good played by Arvind Swamy, is about a rich ‘Buddha’ like character who seeks peace in devotion and prayer. He completely believes in the power of truth and the Bible. Arjun on the other hand is the son of the Satan, as he claims often in the movie. He like Lord Voldemort knows the laws (here the Bible), better than the Good. With a little tiff that arises when the Good meets the Bad, Arjun goes off to only come back to seek vendetta. He also promises Arvind that he is about to teach him a lesson on who’s path in life is a better one.

In the little game they play, the Human is introduced and he moves from one side to the other. From the hitches of the World, the Human struggles and turns himself to Satan during his childhood. The Good returns in the form of Arvind, who is now the newly appointed priest to the local church. He meets the Human and introduces him to goodness and God. After a series of slow paced developments, the Bad returns only coincidently, but uses the opportunity to finish of the long pending revenge. The World is deceived to punish the Good and the Human loses his hope in goodness too. An Angel would then come to cast love on the Human and the whole story further is for these elements to finally say that, ‘No human is complete goodness or complete evil’. 

I’m not sure if anyone actually saw the movie in such a philosophical view. With an audience that can be really entertainment seeking, this movie can be a tragedy. It’s one of those few movies you might have to see again, without friends around, with an open mind, to understand what it says. Credits to Mani Ratnam for his attitude and valor.

With all this said, what lacked in the movie was that some small things were said in a subtle, quiet, unconventional fashion. Most people easily miss out those details and end up blaming the slowness and the complex story.

Kadal, to me, is an 8 on 10.

AADUKALAM- SCORING SCREENPLAY AND CHARACTERISATION

The recent trend that caught up after the success of films like Subbramaniyapuram, Paruthiveeran has been a hit with the Tamil audience as a whole. But, not many could reproduce the same magic as these two films with all audiences. Aadukalam falling in the same category of real-to life films, strikes a chord right from the initial narrations to the well-handled character portrayal. Vettrimaran needs all the accolades for his good screenplay and characterisation. Dialogues in the movie were written with mastery, but the delivery from the actors was blurred at places during the initial few scenes.
After Dhanush’s success in Pudupettai, which portrays the rise of a gangster, one would have expected a similar story after initial promos. Gang-wars, ego, revenge, and self-pride put on a single serving is not something new. But, mishandling it could be tragedy. Vettrimaran has used this formula immaculately giving the movie a strong story. The rooster-fights that appear in the movie show the improved animation techniques in the film industry, giving the movie a highlight. Another highlight is the music by G.V.Prakash, with the songs bustling in charts; but, the background scores and re-recording could have been better.
Aadukalam has a rather forgotten storyline. The first half of the movie revolves around the rooster-fight groups of the village, Pattaiyakarar(Jayabalan) and a police man whose family had been into the game for generations. Dhanush, playing Karuppu, is one of the side-lines of Pattaiyakarar. He, as usual, showcasing his versatile acting skills, elegantly merges with the set-up and makes even the stereotypical dialogues look so natural. Kishore Kumar, the other side-line of pattiyakarar, plays a cameo in the first half, but his character, Durai, is one of the key roles in the second half. Not one character exists without any significance in the whole movie.
Pattaiyakarar emerges victorious in all the games he participates, bringing in envy from the other main group. The police man, Rathnasamy, played by Naren, has his pride at stake and winning a game against Pattaiyakarar is like regaining the lost throne for his family. With rooster-fights entangled into their lives, the fight stadium is their battlefield. In between all this drama, there’s an added-in-the-right-amount love story. The heroine,Tapasee Pannu, not surprisingly shares less screen-space. Playing an Anglo-Indian, her character is also artistically depicted and well suited her. It is laudable that the love doesn’t interfere with the smooth narration. The first half ends with Karupu winning Rathnasamy in a rooster-fight tournament using a rooster that Pattiyakarar considered ineligible for a victory. Though this won Pattaiyakarar the final battle with Rathnasamy, his ego is put through test.
Unable to digest the set-back he suffered in judgement, Pattaiyakarar sets off a cold war against Karupu. Blind-folded by his patriotism towards his master, Karupu falls into the trap and suffers a series of mishap. The second half thus is an entirely different plot. The climax is a bit messed up with. Otherwise, all the characters were handled with clarity and gave us a real-to life feel.

Aadukalam-will play wonders at the box-office; can be watched once for Vettrimaran and all the good acting.

A review on ENDHIRAN- The Robot

Not many movies can survive once the stakes set are high on them! It goes without saying for ENDHIRAN, the costliest movie of Asia ever, a Rajnikanth-Shankar-A.R.Rahman-Aishwarya combo, and so forth the expectations were Himalayan. This is not something new for director Shankar following a huge success of 'Sivaji' at the box-office, but a 160cr movie in Kollywood is not child's play. That's a success in itself. But, the question is that, "Is Endhiran really that worthy?".

Shankar starts off with a clear, slow screenplay introducing us to his subjects like an 8th grade teacher at a science exhibition. Now, that might not be liked by some, but it’s something very essential with a sci-fi movie script and an audience of mixed caliber together. Vaseegaran(the protagonist played by Super star Rajnikanth) is a die-hard scientist dedicated completely to his work on a dream project to create a human-like robot that can be used in wars as replacement for men. With a long wait and after been totally cut off from the outside world, he creates his dream, an artificially intelligent robot 'Chiti'.The script then speeds up and you soon find 'Chiti' (played by Rajni again) entertaining us with all his gimmicks.

Vaseegaran meets trouble in the form of antagonist Danny Denzongpa in approving the robot for the army. He on the other hand envies Dr. Vasi's success and also tries to steal his ideas to make money. As an upgradation after initial failures, Dr. Vaseegaran gives 'Chiti' emotions and human-like characters which lead to unexpected troubles and the rest of the movie is all about what Vaseegaran does to stop Chiti from all the mischief. Rajnikanth coming in as the villain in the second-half as Chiti scores of easily remembering us of the yesteryear movies like Moonru mugam... His performance is applaudable as usual. For once, over-shadowed by the director! Aishwarya Rai Bachchan mesmerizes us with her cute expressions, catchy eyes and etc, etc :-)

Guys, "don get any ideas" with this. The movie is an entertaining package, made in India. Animations done by technicians who worked on movies like the Jurassic park, makes one feel us proud for the effort put in. An Indian movie of this standard was a dream few years back, and here you have a gift from Shankar to all kollywood movie lovers! The various fictitious technologies in the movie are out-of-the-box and Shankar scores of a perfect-ten for that.

But, there were a few odd-ones out in the screenplay. Being a Rajnikanth movie, one would expect the Rajni-factor carrying the script in style. But, it was Shankar all the way, his brilliance in making a movie for all, and not losing the sci-fi flavour. He has taken the audience along with the script, and there's no one who does it better than Shankar. Not to mention the comical and cliched dialogues and scenes at places where some might lose the hold. But, those are parts of a movie for all formula.

As a whole, Endhiran-The Robot has set the stage for Kollywood movies of high standards in the future! Enjoy the movie; it’s worth your bucks :-)

Avatar- A Perfect movie to savour!

    

A Perfect Gift for Any Movie Lover

Yet again, Mr. Cameron gives us what can be termed paramount perfection, with every single frame captivating one's mind and, your heart goes out for Pandora. The protagonist, Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), is a disabled former Marine who takes his late twin brother's place in an avatar program, which was assigned in hopes that the study of Pandora and its population might create a more peaceful planet. But, the truth was to steal Pandora of its resources. The movie revolves around what happens in Pandora when the military advances to complete its orders to conquer it and how Jake strives in stopping them.

Jake Sully goes to Pandora as a replacement for his brother, who dies before his training for the Avatar program, to control an Avatar, which is a biological body that mixes human DNA with that of the native population of Pandora, Na’vi. This Avatar can be controlled from the Base, more like a technology that links a human mind to a biological-robot. Since, only Juke has similar DNA patterns as his twin brother, he’s the only person left to handle his brother’s Avatar.

The planet Pandora is hostile for human beings and situated many light years from planet Earth. Our Avatars look like its ‘monkey-like inhabitants’, blue-skinned and tall. The movie kicks-off with Jake, Dr.Grace(played by Sigourney Weaver), and one of her support staff start their first Avatar journey into Pandora. Though Grace is living what she created Jake is the most excited one with the experience of jumping and running, above all feeling the freedom, which was curbed after a disaster he suffered.

Unexpectedly, they get in the way of a fierce, wild creature of the Pandora forests and Jake gets separated from his team-mates. After getting saved Jake manages to get taken in by one tribe where a powerful, Amazonian named Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) takes him under her wing to teach him how to live in the forest, speak the language and honor the traditions of nature. In his months with the Na'vi, Jake experiences their life as the "true world" and that inside his crippled body locked in a coffin-like transponding device, where he can control his avatar, is as his "destiny." He provides solid intelligence about the Na'vi defensive capabilities to the mining consortium. But as Jake comes to see things through Neytiri's eyes, he hopes to establish enough trust between the humans and the natives to negotiate a peace. But the corporation wants the land the Na'vi occupies for its valuable raw material. So the Colonel of the army, Col. Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang) sees no purpose in this. The rest of the movie is all about how the Earth’s forces are defeated and peace is restored in Pandora.

   Cameron‘s aberrant thought and a wonderfully handled cinematography that brings it out beautifully, send an awe in every audience. The 3-D magic added to mind-boggling animation finishes the ribbon giving our eyes the perfect gift.  Friends, this romantic, science fiction is worth your money, perhaps even more.